Together, ensuring the future

One objective of our association is the reintegration into the employment market of youth, women and men living in difficult situations. This is the case for Cecile, 26, mother of two children. Her spouse immigrated to Gabon to look for work, leaving the care of the children to his wife and his parents. To meet the family's needs, Cecile devoted all her time and energy to her job sweeping the streets, since she had no vocational training.

In her opinion, this job did not ensure her future. So she decided to come to our Centre to be trained in sewing. From the start, she explained her situation to the people in charge and they granted her an extra day off each week, on top of the weekend. That way, she could keep her job sweeping the streets to avoid any extra hardship on the children.

After four months of training, the responsibility of caring for the children seemed to overwhelm Cecile's in-laws. They decided that she should abandon her training and devote all her time to her work sweeping the streets.

Those of us in charge of AMAF-BENIN approached the family as soon as we learned of their decision concerning Cecile's fate. We tried by all means to convince them to allow the young woman to resume her training. We also submitted the sponsorship of her children to several NGO's and the examination of our request is underway.